South Korea resumes anti-North propaganda broadcasts

A South Korean soldier looks through a pair of binoculars near the village of Panmunjom, which sits at the border between the two Koreas.

North Korea has a long history of bellicose rhetoric against the United States and its Asian allies without acting on it, but Pyongyang’s assertion that it had tested a hydrogen device, much more powerful than an atomic bomb, came as a surprise. Yet Washington keeps on accepting it. Prior to its first surprise nuclear test in 2006, the US said it would not permit North Korea to have a nuclear weapon.

The last time Seoul deployed the loudspeakers, in retaliation for a landmine blast in August that wounded two South Korean soldiers, it led to an armed standoff and exchange of artillery fire.

The U.S. said it is true that the North conducted a nuclear test, though it expressed doubts about Pyongyang’s claims that the test involved a hydrogen bomb.

“No strong sanction can stop North Korea’s series of nuclear provocations”, Yoon said.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “The initial analysis is not consistent with the North Korean claims”.

“After the third nuclear test [by North Korea in 2013] we couldn’t find any radionuclides…it means they can shield the test facilities very well”, says Jiyoung Park, a senior research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Moreover, whether a warhead consists of a hydrogen bomb or otherwise, the deterrent effect of a nuclear weapon would remain the same. “All of the people running for the position of commander in chief now have to talk about North Korea”. Nevertheless, this is the fourth nuclear test by North Korea. But most experts dismiss the claim that this was a hydrogen bomb of the sort found in advanced nuclear arsenals.

It has become a top karaoke choice across South Korea and has also spawned numerous parodies, with the “death angel” relaced by an overbearing boss or mother.

The House measure would target banks facilitating North Korea’s nuclear programme and authorise freezing of US assets of those directly linked to illicit North Korean activities.

On Wednesday, there was a burst of jubilation and pride in North Korea’s capital of Pyongyang, where a TV anchor said the test of a “miniaturised” hydrogen bomb had been a “perfect success” that elevated the country’s “nuclear might to the next level”. Iran’s nuclear mastermind Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi was reported present for North Korea’s 2013 nuclear test. The park’s operation won’t likely be affected much as the restriction will apply to clients, potential buyers and service providers from South Korea, rather than managers who commute to work with North Korean laborers.

With a half-baked “hydrogen” bomb test, the Kim Jong-un regime succeeded in refocusing the entire world’s attention on North Korea again.

The United States had been anticipating a North Korean nuclear test for some time, with intelligence indicating possible preparations such as evidence of new excavations of underground tunnels at the site.

“We understand Republican leadership plans to move a bill strengthening USA sanctions on North Korea”.

Li Zhonglin, an ethnic Korean Chinese academic from Yanbian University, said he believed the latest nuclear test would provoke a stronger response from China than did North Korea’s previous three tests, but stressed there were limits.

North Korean government officials told CNN’s Will Ripley – who is in Pyongyang – that they are not afraid of more sanctions; they said that they’ve lived for years with the crippling measures levied against them and are prepared to tighten their belts even more.

Hydrogen bombs pack an explosion that can be more powerful than an atomic bomb as it uses a two-step process of fission and fusion that releases substantially more energy.